Intersection of gender and threat displays: Shifting attention across time

More recent findings suggest a possible role of the cerebellum in nonmotor functions. Disability of individuals with cerebellar damage in rapidly shifting attention is one frequently used example to support cerebellar involvement in mental skills. The original proposal was based on findings in five children with chronic surgical lesions of the cerebellum and a young adult with a degenerative disorder. The aim of the present study was to repeat Akshoomoff and Courchesne's initial findings in a larger group of children with focal cerebellar lesions. Ten children with cerebellar lesions and 10 age- and sex-matched controls were tested. Neocerebellar areas were affected in all children with cerebellar damage except one based on detailed analysis of MRI scans. Subjects had to perform a focus and a shift attention task. Two visual and two auditory stimuli were presented in a pseudorandom order. An ellipse and a high-pitched tone were presented less frequently than a circle and a low-pitched tone. Rare stimuli were presented at five different time intervals. In the focus tasks, subjects had to react to the same rare stimulus of one of the two modalities. In the shift task, subjects had to switch between the two rare stimuli. Motor deficits based on reaction times were small in cerebellar children compared with controls. The ability of target detection did not significantly differ in the children with cerebellar lesions compared with the control children in both the focus and the shift attention task. In particular, children with cerebellar damage showed no significant impairment in rapid (<2 s) shifts of attention. The present findings indicate that the cerebellum may be less critical in attention related processes than suggested previously.

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ERP Evidence for a Shifting Attention Deficit in Patients with Damage to the Cerebellum

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.1994.6.4.388 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 6 (4) ◽

pp. 388-399 ◽

Cited By ~ 70

Author(s):

Natacha A. Akshoomoff ◽

Eric Courchesne

Keyword(s):

Attention Deficit ◽

Visual Stimuli ◽

Young Patients ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Single Location ◽

Related Potentials ◽

Shifting Attention

In a previous study, we found that patients with damage to the neocerebellum were significantly impaired in the ability to rapidly shift their attention between ongoing sequences of auditory and visual stimuli (Akshoomoff & Courchesne, 1992). In the present study, young patients with damage to the neoccrebelluni were found to be impaired in rapidly shifting their mention between visual stimuli that occurred within a single location. Event-related potentials recorded during the shifting attention experiment suggested that this reflects a deficit in the. covert ability to selectively activate and deactivate attention. These results lend Further support to the hypothesis that the neocerebellum plays a role in the ability to rapidly shift attention.

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Supplemental Material for Focusing and Shifting Attention in Pigeon Category Learning

Journal of Experimental Psychology Animal Learning and Cognition ◽

10.1037/xan0000302.supp ◽

2021 ◽

Keyword(s):

Category Learning ◽

Shifting Attention

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Outface and Interface

Face-to-Face in Shakespearean Drama ◽

10.3366/edinburgh/9781474435680.003.0002 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 27-51

Author(s):

Bruce R. Smith

Keyword(s):

Optical Device ◽

Introductory Essay ◽

The Face ◽

Shifting Attention

To face: shifting attention from the noun to the verb changes the dynamics of the interface. To face a person, an object, or a situation is an act of volition. The actor’s own face becomes several things at once: an exteriorization of the actor’s will, an optical device to be looked through, a text to be read by other people. In this introductory essay Bruce R. Smith explores Shakespeare’s distinctive ways with to face as a verb. In plays written throughout his career, in comedies, histories, and tragedies alike, Shakespeare uses the verb to face in multiple senses: to defy, to challenge, to feign, to disguise, to transform. Particularly does Shakespeare seem drawn to the verb to outface. The “out” in that idiom catches the force and the directionality of to face as well as its reciprocity with the person or thing being faced. Those reciprocal dynamics are teased out in Richard II’s address to his face in the mirror: “Was this the face that faced so many follies,/ And was at last out-faced by Bolingbroke?” (R2 4.1.275-76). The “out” in to outface ultimately rebounds and returns the actor to the inter-face.

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The 'anti-shift': Shifting attention opposite to a saccade

Vision Research ◽

10.1016/j.visres.2019.06.009 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 167 ◽

pp. 31-38 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Adam Reeves ◽

James S. McLellan

Keyword(s):

Shifting Attention

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Behavioral Executive Functions Among Adolescents With Mathematics Difficulties

Journal of Learning Disabilities ◽

10.1177/0022219417720684 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 51 (6) ◽

pp. 578-588 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Marja E. Holm ◽

Pirjo Aunio ◽

Piia M. Björn ◽

Liisa Klenberg ◽

Johan Korhonen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Executive Functions ◽

Mathematics Classroom ◽

Action Planning ◽

Mathematics Performance ◽

Mathematics Assessment ◽

Classroom Context ◽

Male Adolescents ◽

Mathematics Difficulties ◽

Directing Attention ◽

Shifting Attention

This study investigates behavioral executive functions (EFs) in the mathematics classroom context among adolescents with different mathematics performance levels. The EF problems were assessed by teachers using a behavioral rating inventory. Using cutoff scores on a standardized mathematics assessment, groups with mathematics difficulties (MD; n = 124), low mathematics performance (LA; n = 140), and average or higher scores (AC; n = 355) were identified. Results showed that the MD group had more problems with distractibility, directing attention, shifting attention, initiative, execution of action, planning, and evaluation than the LA group, whereas the differences in hyperactivity, impulsivity, and sustaining attention were not significant. Compared to the AC group, the MD group showed more problems with all behavioral EFs except hyperactivity and impulsivity, while the LA group showed more problems only with shifting attention. Male adolescents showed more behavioral EF problems than female adolescents, but this gender difference was negligible within the MD group. The practical implications of the results are discussed.

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